How do multinational corporations in emerging economies patenting abroad? Empirical evidence from Chinese manufacturing enterprises

We examine how micro-level heterogeneity among multinational corporations from emerging economies shapes patenting-abroad strategies and how these firm attributes interact with host-country institutions. Integrating the resource-based view and institutional theory, we theorize the boundary conditions under which exports and outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) translate into patenting abroad. Using a high-dimensional panel fixed-effects model and a sample of 510 A-share-listed Chinese manufacturing firms from 2010 to 2016, we test the effects of ownership type and factor intensity, together with host-country conditions—imitation threat and intellectual property rights (IPR) level—on firms' patenting abroad. The study finds that state-owned enterprises and technology-intensive firms exhibit a more significant positive impact of exports/OFDI on patenting abroad. Moreover, imitation threats in host countries positively moderate the relationship between exports/OFDI and patenting abroad. Higher IPR levels weaken this moderating effect; nevertheless, this attenuation occurs specifically in the OFDI context. While prior work centers on developed economies, focusing on the direct influence of economic and institutional factors, with less attention to the micro-level variations across MNCs from emerging markets and their nuanced interactions with host-country environments. We identify boundary conditions shaped by firm-specific attributes and host-country institutional characteristics, thereby advancing a framework for understanding firm-level patenting strategies in institutionally diverse contexts.

• Publication year

  2026

• Venue

  International Journal of Emerging Markets

• Publication date

  2026-01-01

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1108/ijoem-02-2025-0357
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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